Thursday, 30 September 2010

John "Chip" Scarlett is racing to save sharks with his Shark Car. This season Chip has been promoting Shark Savers while driving in the Mustang Challenge racing series.

Chip has taken this novel approach to promote awareness about the oceans dire need for sharks. To learn more about the plight of our sharks watch this short feature about Chip and his mission to save them.

Were desire given depth and time for dives but permitted to dive computerwith buddy.

Liveaboard?

no

Nitrox Available?

no

What I saw

Sharks

Lots

Mantas

1 or 2

Dolphins

1 or 2

Whale Sharks

None

Turtles

> 2

Whales

None

Ratings 1 (worst)- 5 (best):

Corals

Tropical Fish

Small Critters

Large Fish

Large Pelagics

Underwater Photography 1 (worst)- 5 (best):

Subject Matter

Boat Facilities

Overall rating for UWP's

Shore Facilities

Comments

[None]

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst)- 5 (best):

Accommodations

Food

Service and Attitude

Environmental Sensitivity

Dive Operation

Shore Diving

Snorkeling

Overall Rating

Value for $$

Beginners

Advanced

Comments

The Diving:Matava’s newest dive boat delivered just the week prior to our arrival, iscapable of accommodating approximately 14 divers. We were prettycomfortable with 10 divers plus the dive master, crew and boat captain.Dive sites were anywhere from a 10 minute to 30 minute ride and surfaceintervals were done either in the calmer waters inside the reef or onshore. (The new boat has overhead canvas bins for dry storage but none oftheir dive boats have marine heads nor provisions for large cameraequipment.) Outside the reef there was always an ocean swell (between 2-3ft). Inside the reef was calm but because the weather was unseasonablywindy we usually had some surface chop. The Astrolabe Reef provides anincredible display of healthy, colorful hard corals and the diving wasexcellent. During our 1 week visit we dove “Manta Reef” twice and as thename implies – it delivered. We dove with no less than 10 Manta’s total.“Eagle’s Rock” was a great shark dive: 20 to 30+ white tip, black tip andgray reef sharks of various sizes schooling together in the reef inlet.“Japanese Gardens” had a beautiful assortment of soft corals and “CabbagePatch” should not be missed. During the week in addition to the manta raysand sharks (and probably the largest variety of butterfly fish we’ve everseen) of note we saw a dolphin, a napoleon wrasse, a sea snake, severallion fish, octopus, turtles, giant clams, eels, clown fish and stunningnudibranchs. The dive staff did a great job of understanding the needs ofthe guests and DM’s Masau and Ta were informative and fun to dive with.During briefings we were given dive profiles but for the most part we wereable to dive our computers. Every day the dive staff took care of settingup our gear as well as rinsing and hanging our suits at the end of the day.In a nutshell, great diving and an excellent dive staff made for someterrific memories.

The resort:With traditional thatched bure’s tucked into the mountain side of KadavuIsland, the resort is a beautiful place to get away from it all. Thenewest (honeymoon) bure at the top of the hill (94 stairs of various sizesto climb) has an absolutely spectacular view! It’s an eco-resort and amajority of the power is supplied by solar so leave your hair dryer athome. The hot water is solar but for cloudy days they have back uppropane tanks for hot showers. The bure’s are cleaned daily and the sheetsand towels are changed every 2-3 days (all laundry is done by hand). Tokeep the pests at bay they provide mosquito nets over the beds and mosquitocoils for the bures. The combination seems to work pretty well. Maggie,the resort host/hostess has a unique style of hospitality that isentertaining and he makes sure that you feel welcome and have need ofnothing. The staff is Fijian and they were always ready with a big smile.They have a small area in the main bure for charging batteries from 9am –5pm daily. My one recommendation would be that you bring your own waterbottle (for use in your bure and on the boat).Kayaks are available for use at no charge and if you’re up to a 50-60minute (one-way) hike there is a Fijian Village, School and beautifulwaterfall that is well worth the effort.

The food:3 meals per day, breakfast was comprised of fresh fruit, toast and eggs.In addition to these some days they had homemade breakfast rolls, Frenchtoast or banana pancakes. All of their homemade breads were terrific.Lunches were varied and dinners ranged from satisfactory to quite good withexcellent flavors. Soups were extraordinary! (I believe one of the moredisappointing meals was simply the result of a late supply ship to theisland.) When you arrive you are asked about dietaryrestrictions/requirements. This close to New Zealand you will likely beserved lamb for at least one dinner – let them know in advance if you wouldprefer something else. They seemed to accommodate the vegetarian’s quitewell. Instant coffee, tea and cocoa are available from 6am – 11pm daily.

November 20th to November 27th 2010

A week of diving, chaos and fun for only - USD 1199.00

The Scuba Radio crew with Greg the Divemaster and the Mermaids are coming back to Fiji, and this time it's going to be mostly for fun!

The week will begin on Saturday 20th, however DO feel free to drop in for half the week, or even just the last few days! Drop us an email or call us on Skype and we'll work it out! Heck, it's going to be chaos anyway!

Greg et al will arrive at Matava in Fiji on Monday 22nd November, fresh from a week in Las Vegas at the DEMA Show. If you are planning on going to this Dive Show, cahnces are that you'll bump into the crew there, and you can fly with them all the way to Fiji.

Greg and the crew were here in May (listen to that show here!), and they loved it SO much that they're coming back. This time they're coming to Matava in Kadavu to dive the Great Astrolabe Reef with the mantas, and they are inviting us all along for the week!

ScubaRadio is radio talk show with a diving theme. Pictures are painted of the underwater world as listeners and guests share their diving adventures. Every diver has a story about the perfect dive, destination, or encounter with some amazing sea creature. ScubaRadio provides the forum. It’s like hanging out at a Tiki hut and sharing fish tales with friends.

Never heard of Scuba Radio (where HAVE you been?), find the podcasts/archives of ScubaRadio here, available worldwide online! Just click here or paste the following link into your podcasting software: http://www.scubaradio.com/srpodcast.xml. You’ll find at least a couple years of past shows!

A blog by Richard, Joe, Stuart, Simon and Lou of Mad Fish Dive Centre at Matava about the great scuba diving around the Fiji Islands. Some of the highlights of living and working in Fiji is the diving on the soft coral reefs with sharks, mantas and teeming life on the reefs.